Job Hunting Challenges

Finding jobs has been the next big challenge to restarting our lives, and it has been more difficult  than my husband and I imagined. Our age is one hurdle, but surprisingly being away from our careers for a relatively short time has had a huge negative impact. Even more stressful, it became clear early on that EVERYTHING about finding a job has changed: resume format and content; the search itself; telephone and video interviews, dress, applicant search software; contract versus permanent positions and more.

With no money for expert coaching available, there was nothing else to do but apply all my efforts to learning the new way on my own. I researched online utilizing LinkedIn and other career oriented sites. I read job descriptions to get a handle on the new search terms that applicant tracking software looks for in our careers. I utilized the free resume review from job boards to help me bring our resumes up to date.

The engineering and CAD world has changed a lot since my husband was a design engineer. My field, IT Project management has undergone a BIG change and now most jobs require a certification I didn’t have.

Even so, I was offered a contract position, spent days completing the paper work and going through various screenings. I even turned down another potential contract job. The Friday before I was due to start the recruiting firm contacted me to say that the client changed their mind because it was taking too long! What??? My references, screenings and the like were all up to snuff, what in the world caused this to happen? Could it be my age or maybe that lack of certification?

In the meantime my husband and I were getting nowhere with our job searches. Finally my husband had an interview with a big home improvement store in their tool department. Although it was many levels below where his career should be, it was a job and one in an area that he has vast experience and would enjoy. He was called in for a second interview and the guy told him he was the only candidate they brought back for a second time. By the end of the visit, he had every indication that he had the job, they just had to finalize the paperwork.

At about the same time he was contacted by a large grocery chain who was opening a new store. Fortunately he followed through with subsequent interviews. Because, when he finally heard back from the home improvement store it was to tell him that the employee who had given notice to transfer to another store was having difficulty getting the transfer through so the job was no longer available.

While my husband was riding that roller coaster, I continued to apply for any job that I was remotely qualified. Eventually I was contacted by a recruiting firm that wanted me to come in for an interview. I fought the traffic into downtown  Nashville for the meeting, but nothing came of it.

Another firm contacted me for a video interview but I was once again confronted with the not having that certification. (For those of you familiar with project management, it was the Certified Scrum Master designation that I lacked).

The good news is that my husband was offered a job with the grocery store and accepted. The pay is way lower than he had hoped to make but at least he has a job.

I made the decision to use a chunk of our savings to take the Certified Scrum Master (CSM) workshop to earn the much needed certification. There were 3 weeks before the next workshop so I did some reading to prepare for the class and be ready to take the exam. The workshop cost was over $1,000 but I felt that I would earn that back once I landed a job by having the certification. It was a gamble, but I felt it was necessary.

The week before the CSM workshop I had an interview with a local Fortune 500 company. I worked to learn about the  company and generally prepare. The interview seemed to go great and later the recruiter called to tell me that I was one of 3 candidates that would be called back the following week for a second interview.

The following week was the CSM Workshop.  The workshop was excellent and it gave me an opportunity to interact with other project managers.

I expected to hear back from the recruiter about the timing for the 2nd interview. True to his word, he called, but he hadn’t received any prospective dates and times for the 2nd interview.

When the workshop was over and I was just logging in to take the CSM exam when my recruiter called. Bad news, the client decided to go with one of the other candidates who hadn’t been out of the project management arena as I had. What a major disappointment!!

After chatting with my course instructor and getting my head back into it I took the exam and passed! Finally I’m an officially certified Scrum Master! Hopefully this certification will help me land a job soon.

But, I’m not stopping there. After months of back and forth with myself, I’ve decided to have my hair styled and colored to hide the gray so my age isn’t so obvious. I don’t have any real evidence but I do think my age has been a factor. Maybe with a young looking professional style, I’ll be able to minimize the age factor.

In addition, I’ve set up a new email address and will include it with the updates to my resume reflecting my new CSM credential. I’ve read that some of the applicant tracking systems catalog candidates by their email address along with the results from the initial  keyword search of their resume. Unfortunately that means that my new CSM credential would not be shown. A new email address triggers a new keyword search thereby resetting my resume in the system  that will include my new CSM credential. Stay tuned for updates!